Pete Basinger Challenges Baja Divide FKT

Pete Basinger left Tecate in the early morning hours of December 24, 2017, embarking on a little-publicized ride of the Baja Divide. Pete intends to challenge the existing FKT on the Baja Divide set by Lael Wilcox in March, 2017. Wilcox finished in 11 days, 13 hours, and 02 minutes. After a fast ride on the first day Pete was ahead of the current record until that evening when a long restful sleep put him behind the mark. Within a couple days he was nearly 6 hours behind pace. Leaving Nueva Odisea, Pete began pushing longer days and shorter nights, continuing his strong and consistent daily riding pace. As such, he has climbed back on pace and is now tracking about 2 hours ahead of Lael’s FKT pace from this spring. At the time of writing Pete is in San Juan de la Costa and is exactly 200 miles from the finish at Plaza Mijares in San Jose del Cabo.

If Pete can maintain his riding pace and keep tonight’s rest brief, he is likely to roll into San Jose del Cabo late Thursday afternoon establishing a new Baja Divide FKT.

Pete Basinger is a legend in the ultra-endurance cycling world, having raced the Iditarod Trail Invitational many times, including a record-setting ride to McGrath in 2007. Pete was also one of the first riders to participate in the early Great Divide Race in 2004, later replaced by the Tour Divide which he rode again in 2012. He has participated in many 24 hour mountain bike races and shorter format endurance races around the country, most recently winning the Kenai 250 in the summer of 2017 and the Arizona Trail 300 in April of the same year.

The Baja Divide FKT route is a slightly truncated version of the complete touring route, leaving from the public plaza in Tecate and finishing in historic San Jose del Cabo, totaling about 1568 miles.